Who are You Going to Call?

We have all been there. What should be an easy drive from an outing to home becomes a nightmare when, out of the blue, the car stops running, the hazard lights start flashing, the process of analyzing and repairing the car starts, and the desperate pursuit of roadside help begins.
There is never a good time for this to happen. Not only is this a tough situation, but it is compounded by the time at which it occurs and the amount of time it takes to solve the problem. In the middle of the day and during some traffic seems like a good time to be visible from the road and helped by passersby, but what are the chances of being spotted by a random tow truck driver or a mechanic with full tools onboard? In the middle of the night seems safer, but there is usually no traffic in which to be noticed and resources for help are severely limited due to the time of day.
There is never a good way for this to happen. While it is not part of everyday activities, it is not an impossible situation for which to prepare and anticipate. All one needs to do is buy every tool, every car part, learn every technique, and provide the means to carry these things on every trip in order to be able to fix any problem that arises…which is as impossible as it is ridiculous! There is but one course of action when calamity strikes.

Call the experts!

There is, however, a perfect solution to anticipating and solving car problems. There is a common practice found in the everyday phrases heard countless times.

• “Call AAA.”
• “My insurance has roadside assistance.”
• “Call emergency services.”
• “Call my mechanic and report the emergency.”

Yes, “call the experts” is the commonplace, expected solution. No driver leaves vehicle performance and travel plans to chance; no driver is the auto repair expert or travels with a mechanic riding shotgun. Not only is calling the experts the common practice, but it is also the necessary solution to identifying the problem, getting back on the road and arriving at the destination, and, most importantly, getting through the problem with the least expensive cost, least amount of time lost, and least amount of worry about the guarantee that the problem has been fixed. This is how every driver guarantees their return on investment (ROI).

The same care should be taken when considering the learning and development (L&D) needs of any organization. No organization wants to be blindsided by out-of-the-ordinary activities that force daily workflow to slow or halt. No organization wants to lose ROI when organization skill sets and efficiency are hindered by anything that can be solved with simple L&D-driven attention. Dealing with L&D issues can be much like dealing with car trouble. It can be unexpected, it can be largely prevented by regular service, and it can cause quite an emergency if not handled with the proper expertise. Notice the words that were used when guaranteeing a solution to the car trouble emergency:

• Insurance in event of problems
• Emergency relief
• Services provided in case of need

Notice that each solution appeals to experts (AAA, emergency services, a mechanic) that are entrusted with a guaranteed solution. Why should less care be taken when planning the ROI for an organization, the vehicle that is used to travel between the destinations of an organization’s skills and their delivery of an organization’s goals and objectives?

Every organization should have a plan for L&D “emergencies;” every organization should have the experts on speed dial awaiting a call at any time. After all, it is inevitable that emergencies will occur. Every organization wants insurance that helps prevent, solve, and ease those times of emergency. Every organization wants services ready at hand that serves as both solution and prevention of emergency and insurance that an emergency can be best handled. After all, it is the handling of such issues that determines how much time, money, staff, work, and worry are spent that increase and decrease ROI.

When speedbumps, breakdowns, and problems that require L&D occur, experts should be trusted for solutions so that the greatest return on investment is possible. While a comparison between L&D needs and having a car problem is not completely accurate, it is completely accurate that not serving L&D needs with proper expertise will feel like a car having a total breakdown in the middle of rush hour traffic. What should be preventative maintenance on the front end has become an inefficient emergency on the back end. It is not that an organization has L&D needs, but rather how an organization handles L&D needs that make all the difference in the world when it comes to ROI!

Outsourcing this solution…as one outsources the solution to preventing a car emergency or to getting a car running smoothly after an emergency…is the commonsense, cost-effective solution for L&D needs. Outsourcing L&D solutions account not only for practical L&D needs, but also for the time and resources involved in the entire process of analysis, planning, implementation, and evaluation. Most organizations hemorrhage resources in the process of determining and implementing L&D solutions to the detriment of everyday workflow and the integrity of staff skill sets. The timing of fitting such into the usual workday becomes a stone in the shoe. Outsourcing to a group of experts such as VisionCor, a managed learning services provider, takes into consideration timing, correspondence of L&D with the flow of the workday, and the necessity of having an objective, fresh set of eyes on operations in order to minimize workday disruption for optimum timing.

VisionCor knows, just like the car troubles that sideline a simple drive, that there is no optimum time for L&D to occur. Our managed learning services have a deep roster of experts who, at one time, worked for organizations that used practices that, just like car troubles that happen mid-day in traffic, thought the best time for L&D to happen is during daily workflow when there was a chance of an on-staff, close-enough expert to observe business practices and help during a time of need. However, the random nature of this solution was a considerable drain of time that pulled the on-staff expert away from duties and cost an undeterminable amount of money. Such a solution guarantees neither the necessary method nor cost to cover an L&D project, nor the work needed to be covered by pulling this expert off their current job.

VisionCor knows, like the broken radiator hose in the middle of the night, that organizations also think L&D needs could be tackled during times when there are no processes happening (as if it were cost-effective and efficient to require weekend, off-hour, or overtime duties in an unrelated field or skill set), and that this solution cripples ROI. This solution does not guarantee that the most efficient or cost-effective ROI will happen due to the desperate nature of the problem’s timing and the lack of resources available for proper observation of workflow and needs analysis.

Outsourcing L&D solutions to experts is therefore the best way to guarantee ROI while an expert is immersed in the work culture, working during the work process, and not disturbing the workflow.

Expert Needs Require Expert Solutions

Learning and development needs should be planned for the highest return on investment (ROI) in the same manner that an organization plans for ROI regarding profit, advertising, staffing, and objectives. Unfortunately, many organizations cheat themselves of a good ROI due to a poor ability to identify L&D needs, develop L&D models and methods, staff L&D teams or leadership, and execute L&D programming and evaluation. While this list addresses only general L&D considerations, the list is too long, too involved, and infers incalculable specifics that cause problems for an organization and its investment. Any slight miscalculation, any slight mishap on pulling the wrong team member from their purposed role to handle L&D needs, or any slight mistake in implementing the wrong method of L&D methods and education cost time, money, and resources that cannot be recuperated and still, despite the best intentions, leave the L&D gap to be covered.

When a business or organization seeks to maximize ROI, they plan carefully with specific objectives in mind. While the objectives are often customized to the nature, product, or service of an organization, the nature of the principle is always the same.

Maximizing ROI should include:

• Careful planning of the term and scope of the investment
• Utilizing current departments and teams at maximum efficiency
• Maximizing current technology and use of new and predicted technologies
• Close examination of organization costs
• Department, team, staff, and organization efficiency

These principles translate effortlessly to L&D ROI. Every L&D project gets the best ROI if:

• The term and scope of the L&D project are planned carefully
• Current departments and teams are used efficiently, either by employing current strengths and considering deficiencies or by outsourcing expertise so that team flow is left undisturbed
• L&D considers current technology while onboarding predicted, industry-changing technology
• L&D needs to consider organization costs and plans for efficiency around those costs
• Staff efficiency is maximized by outsourcing the expertise

These L&D ROI principles are essential components in keeping an organization efficient, effective, and relevant in the market. They are best applied by objective, immediately available experts from a managed learning services provider such as VisionCor. Any organization has moments where they, like the car that needs service, need their processes and workflow serviced in order to achieve maximum performance. Maximum performance includes calculating, devising, and implementing proper L&D methods that consider the organization and its market. Entrusting such to VisionCor means that these components are implemented immediately, effectively, and objectively. If, at any point, an organization determines that it can handle its own L&D needs seamlessly and without objective, expert consultation, then (at the risk of raising blood pressures and tempers) should ask the following questions:

• How much time is lost by pulling a team member away from their duties to begin an L&D project?
• When, if not immediately, can a team member start the process and when can the plan, when formulated, be implemented?
• How much ground is left uncovered when new technologies render an organization’s current pace as slow and behind the trend?
• How much money is lost implementing the wrong L&D strategy, going back to the drawing board, and implementing a second, third, or fourth strategy?
• How much time and money are wasted training and educating team members about skills they already have?
• How much money is worth the efficiency of getting L&D right on the first attempt?
• Would a team deficiency due to L&D needs be best covered by hiring an expert to analyze, customize, and cover L&D needs or by spreading the team thinner or covering their work with an outside temporary hire?

These questions seem to hemorrhage time and money by simply reading them.

 

VisionCor ROI Principles and Guarantee

VisionCor provides experts who know how to analyze organizational processes and aptitudes for maximum return on investment. A VisionCor expert saves time, money, and resources in all departments affected by L&D needs. Most importantly, a VisionCor professional has the expertise that allows for seamless integration into an organization’s workflow in order to provide:

• Careful planning of the term and scope of the investment
• Utilizing current departments and teams at maximum efficiency
• Maximizing current technology and use of new and predicted technologies
• Close examination of organization costs
• Department, team, staff, and organization efficiency

The textbook principles for maximum return on investment in an organization are the same objectives exercised by the experts outsourced from VisionCor. Not only does VisionCor implement the methods for maximum ROI, but we also eliminate the possibility of bad timing when it comes to L&D solutions. There are no middle-of-the-night breakdowns or stuck-in-rush-hour smoking radiators because we plan seamless solutions that fit organization needs, technologies, staff, and time frames. We look to be the roadside assistance that not only puts an organization back on the road in the event of an unfortunate repair that stops traffic but also…and this is most important in the VisionCor mission…the servicing of your organization that prevents speedbumps and hiccups that slow or altogether stop important work activities.

When VisionCor puts a solution in place, your organization will not feel anything but a smooth drive and an arrival at goals that beats the estimated time of arrival.

VisionCor strives to be the expert on call for those integral components that keep an organization running in top shape:

• Insurance during organization needs, transitions, and activities
• Emergency relief with expertise and efficiency
• Services provided with customized analysis and implementation

When one is stranded on the side of the road, in the middle of traffic, or alone on a dark night in a car that is smoking, sputtering, or has stopped altogether, it is too late to shop for parts, learn repair diagnosis and techniques, and continue the drive with maximum efficiency. These situations exacerbate anxiety, desperation, and the possibility of rash decision-making. Proper service for optimum prevention of problems is the salt in the wound of a person stranded in a car that will not run properly.  In the same manner, VisionCor expertise eliminates the possibility of being placed in such a desperate situation and alleviates the stress of dealing with the processes of efficiency. VisionCor alleviates the stress that is caused by training, transition, and new technologies and places an organization ahead of the curve and in line to handle changing market trends with no disruption.

While servicing a vehicle incurs a cost on the front end of an investment, the payoff on the back end of servicing a vehicle is golden. When the processes of an organization are serviced with detailed analysis and customized considerations, the return on investment is guaranteed. There is not a driver who does not wish that they had filled the tank with gas instead of choosing less of an investment on the front end when they are stranded. The mother trying to get home to help with her children’s homework wishes she had the timing belt serviced instead of putting it off for the sake of saving time and money on the front end. Many organizations casually undertake L&D journeys on the front end with in-house attempts and buckshot methods of learning and development. Many organizations shoot themselves in the foot on the back end because such L&D methods do not consider ROI. An expert will be the only way to solve the problems of an organization that is plagued with the problems, clean-up, and recuperation that come when ROI is not considered in the L&D process.

VisionCor has a distinct advantage available to any organization that outsources its needs. Our experts have a wide range of backgrounds and an unsurpassed depth of experience when it comes to integrating seamlessly into an organization’s workflow. VisionCor finds this not only to be necessary in order to assess an organization’s needs but also necessary in order to maximize ROI.

When a tow truck arrives, the tow truck is the cavalry that saves the day. Who is expected to step from behind the steering wheel of the tow truck? Is it a burly man with a cap and beard who can push the car himself onto the truck? Is it a slight woman with glasses and a briefcase who has complete control of her technology? Is it a mechanic who can make minor adjustments and get you running without the need for towing? Is it a former salesman who knows not only how to tow you but where to tow you for the quickest repair?

At VisionCor, we know that different organizations require customized L&D solutions for maximum ROI. We keep a roster of experts with backgrounds in business, staffing, instructional design, nonprofit, sales, and many more areas because your business needs require specific expertise. We keep highly specialized experts ready for placement so that an organization’s daily processes flow uninterrupted when implementing L&D. For VisionCor, this is the cost of doing business; for you, it is the lower cost of doing business. We know that a sales business is best analyzed by a sales expert. We know that experts with a background in instructional design know how to trim away the fat and keep it lean when implementing training. We have placed our experts in education behind the onboarding processes in training and education departments to great success. These fine-tuned placements result in best practices when using proven, ROI principles.

How can VisionCor help in streamlining your process? Contact us here to discuss how to guarantee your return on investment.